The short answer was that it happened in 1917, concurrent with the creation of the modern medal structure (Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Bronze Star, etc) that created a more graded application of valor awards.

Most Civil War writing focuses on battles and the soldiers and officers who fought them. How about more posts and research on the economics of the war? The possibilities are endless. They include:

1) How did the Confederacy last four years with what at the beginning of the war was a very limited economy (growing of cotton, rice and tobacco)?

2) The effects of the Union’s naval blockade on the South’s economy. How did the South’s economy compensate for the gradual loss of farming and industrial territory as the North controlled more and more parts of the Confederacy?

3) How did the South survive super-inflation during the war, especially in the last 18 months?

4) How did the Union’s economy expand (or contract) during the war?

5) What were the different ways each side financed the war?

6) The role of railroads, canals, rivers, etc. in transporting each sides’ goods.

7) Who benefited economically from the war? (Of course, there were many well-known war profiteers on the Union side, but I have read that some southern businessmen also benefited from the war.)

8) Did Lincoln and Davis understand the economic dimensions of the war? (I have read that both presidents, especially Davis, were deficient in this area.)

9) Did the Union’s underground (and in some cases above-ground) trading with the South throughout the war allow the Confederacy to keep going longer than it normally would have have?

10) How did England and France adapt to the huge reduction in cotton imports from the South during the war? Did the South’s partial embargo of cotton to Europe during the early months of the war have any economic effect on England and France?

11) How did average people on the home front, on both sides, adapt to the economic restraints of the war?

12) Did the gradual collapse of the South’s home front economy really lead to massive desertions among Confederate troops?

1 civil war preservation efforts and successes . what we can do to help besides donating money.
2. WAR IN WESTERN VIRGINIA AND THE IMPACT ON THE SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS AS WELL .
3 TEACHING THE WAR TO ALL AGES DOING A GOOD PROGRAM . A LOT OF RE IN-ACTORS [ NOT ALL ] ARE DOING A POOR JOB IN LIVING HISTORY’S . SEEMS THEY ARE MORE PLAYERS THEN HISTORIANS..